Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

Yes—would you describe them as cardboard cut-outs? I certainly wouldn't.

I want to talk about other jurisdictions, and the Northern Territory in particular. Fifty per cent of Northern Territory elected representatives are women; 66 per cent of their cabinet are women.

It can be done. You just have to have the will to do it. And, with great respect to all the males in this place—and I see the member for Leichhardt sitting here, who I think shares many of my views around this particular subject—we men have just got to accept that, in this place, women are equal, and they should be equal, and we should set targets to make sure that affirmative action works for women in the community. How can the Prime Minister possibly think it's okay that, beyond the next election, they might only have five women in the House of Representatives in the coalition? How can that possibly be okay?

Forty-six per cent of the Labor Party membership in my electorate of Lingiari are women, and I've been really fortunate, during the course of my life, to have really strong women involved. There were those from my own family, obviously: my aunties—they wouldn't put up with rubbish, I can tell you—and my mum. I'm proud of the way in which they inculcated in me the respect we should have for everyone in the community and, most particularly, to appreciate that women can have whatever role they choose. If they choose to be politicians then you should support them in doing so. That's really important. But there was one particular woman, who, for me, was a bit of a hero, who worked in partnership with a great man, who was one of my mentors—Nugget Coombs—and that was Judith Wright. Now there was a woman who had attitude and was able to express it!

I've been blessed in my time in this parliament. Currently 50 per cent of my staff are women—these are good women: Jo Nicol, Kirsty Hunt, Bianca Doyle, Caitlin in my Canberra office. They are wonderfully strong women and very assertive women, let me tell you, who have no trouble putting me in my place. But I want to reflect on a number of others who had a significant influence on me and on their assertiveness in making sure I understood, from their perspective, the need to acknowledge women. I briefly want to mention Margaret Gillespie, who was my first chief of staff and who went on to become the national secretary of the CPSU; Carol Burke, who, sadly, is no longer with us, who was a really, really wonderful woman, a wonderful human being, who taught me a great deal about the respect I needed to have; and my own partner, Elizabeth. Let me tell you, if you want to see some assertive people in your life, meet my partner, Elizabeth, and our two daughters, Frankie and Tessa. If you think that they would cop the crap that's been coming out of the Liberal Party, you'd be sadly mistaken. I applaud them for standing up for their rights and for the rights of all women.

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